About Malini Singh McDonald

Malini Singh McDonald is a native New Yorker who has been involved in the arts for her entire life. A passionate and experienced artist and producer, Malini has twenty years of practical experience in the NYC theatre scene. She’s served the theatre in many aspects of which she’s very proud – actress, director, producer, stage manager, costume designer, prop designer, theatre reviewer, publicist, radio presenter, and writer/monologist.

Malini received her BA in Theatre Arts and English Literature from Baruch College and her MFA in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School. As a producer in the independent theatre scene, Malini mastered the skills of marketing and producing her work in an ever-growing and ever-changing theatre scene.

In 2003, Malini and her husband, Ian McDonald, created Black Henna Productions with a handful of innovative artists. Every member of the company collaborates on every piece, either writing, acting, directing, designing, or filling any other role that fits their own personal skills with a commitment bringing new, exciting, and challenging theatre to the world. Black Henna’s past productions include Torch Song Trilogy, Much Ado About Nothing & Twelfth Night. Malini naturally became a publicist by sending emails to her circle of friends to let them know which friend was doing what show throughout the Big Apple.

By July 2012, the emails transformed into a newsletter and quickly expanded into Theatre Beyond Broadway. Theatre Beyond Broadway provides a platform to promote and support independent artists, groups and productions that are produced beyond the bright lights of Broadway.

When she isn’t doing all things theatre, Malini finds solace in writing poetry. Her work has been published in Newtown Literary Journal and she contributed to Kew Gardens, a book about the history of “the backbone of Long Island”. She loves being a tourist in her hometown and is currently working on a series of poems on her New York City.

Malini is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and League of Professional Theatre Women. Malini received the Woman of Distinction Award for her contribution to Media, Arts and Culture from the City of New York in 2008. She was also a producer for the 2012-2013 Broadway production of Godspell.